Anti-Israel side crossed line by protesting synagogue, community says

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Members of the Jewish community expressed their growing anxiety after anti-Israel protesters picketed a Toronto-area synagogue with chants of “Go back to Europe” and burned an Israeli flag.

Rabbi Daniel Korobkin, the leader of the institution in Thornhill, said religious sites should be exempt from such demonstrations.

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“A civil Canadian knows that there is a line, and that line is you don’t encroach on a house of worship. You worship the same God, and this is not right,” Korobkin told National Post in the midst of the demonstrations outside his synagogue, which was hosting an Israeli real estate event Thursday afternoon.

“It makes me sad. This should never have been allowed. It’s not right. We would never do this to a Muslim mosque. We would never encroach on their property,” the rabbi continued, noting that some Canadian mosques have praised Hamas. “This is a violation of the criminal code in Ontario,” Korobkin said, as an anti-Israel protester chanted “they are demonic and we can be louder.”

At other times, anti-Israel demonstrators shouted, “Go back to Europe!” “Intifada, revolution!” and burned an Israeli flag.

“We’re in your neighbourhood and you’re not doing nothing about it,” a demonstrator yelled repeatedly, according to a video posted to X.

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Meanwhile, a contingent of Iranian-Canadians waved flags of the “Lion and Sun,” a popular symbol protesting the Islamic Republic, on the synagogue’s steps in support of the Jewish community.

Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto (BAYT) hosted “The Great Israeli Real Estate Event,” offering participants advice about investing in “a piece of the Holy Land.” Most of the communities fall within the Green Line, the internationally accepted borders of Israel.

A couple others — Ma’ale Adumim and Efrat — are large Israel communities located within disputed territories and seen by the country as “consensus” settlements, or non-negotiable cities that will be included within Israel in a final peace deal.

The event organizers expected anti-Israel protesters to disrupt the event and so urged people to show up for their own pro-Israel demonstration. The event proceeded in the synagogue without any interruptions.

“God bless the IDF! God bless our soldiers!” rung out from the pro-Israel side.

The presence of hundreds of pro-Palestinian counter-protesters inspired many who have never engaged in activism to stand with the Jewish community in solidarity with the BAYT.

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“We came to support our community in Thornhill,” a Ukrainian-Canadian who lives in the neighbourhood told the Post. “This should not be happening. We are in Canada, we live in Toronto. We have different opinions, and we have different views, but this violence has to stop; this intimidation of people has to stop.”

Some anti-Israel demonstrators said they were sympathetic to the concerns of the local Jewish community but felt that the synagogue’s endorsement of the event made it a legitimate political target of protest.

“I totally understand folks that might feel uncomfortable,” Muhammad, a member with Palestinian Youth Movement who only gave his first name, told the Post. (The group characterized Hamas’s attack on Israel as the “decolonization of Palestinian land led by the Palestinian resistance,” in an Instagram post two days after more than 1,000 Israelis were killed.) 

Muhammad underscored that some Jews were participating in the counter-protest, namely the small anti-Zionist religious sect, Neturei Karta, as well as Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), a controversial anti-Zionist fringe group. David Mivasair, an IJV member at the protest said the Oct. 7 attacks were “the outcome of an enormously unjust system that held down the (Palestinian) people on the other side until they took that action.”

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“Because the synagogue chose to have this event hosted here, we’re here. We wouldn’t be doing this at a synagogue any other day,” Muhammed said. Asked about specific locations being promoted at the event, Muhammad could not name any. Instead, he shared a poster from a different event promoting seminars for real estate in Israeli areas. That poster listed Jerusalem, plus 12 other Israeli towns and cities not located in any territories officially considered to be in dispute.

One mother, whose children attend local Jewish day schools, denounced the tenor of pro-Palestinian demonstrators while defending their right to free speech.

“They’re allowed to say things that I vehemently disagree with, even hate,” the pro-Israel supporter, who did not want to be named because of her work, told the Post. “What I take issue with is where they say it and how they do it. You should protest in front of organizations that represent the parties that you’re protesting,” she continued, suggesting the Israeli consulate or provincial government buildings.

“But don’t protest in residential neighbourhoods where children are afraid. It feels very harassing. I can’t speak for their intent. I believe their intent is harassment. But I don’t know that for sure. But I can say that for, across the board, for Jewish people in this neighbourhood, it feels like harassment.”

“In my life, I never felt unsafe as a Jew in Canada, ever,” she said. “I knew there’s always been antisemitism … but I never realized the extent to which it existed in Canada. And I think it’s been emboldened.”

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